Democracy is a form of government where citizens take an active part in the formulation and establishment of laws that govern the society. The involvement of these citizens is either direct or indirect through representatives. In simple terms, in a democratically run nation, the real power is vested in the citizens. A democratically run society is characterized by equality, and rights that apply to everyone. In addition, the law applies equally to every single citizen. Democracy is currently a feature in many countries across the world although there are some countries that are not democratized. However, questions have always been asked regarding the factors that promote the maintenance of democracy in a nation. One factor whose influence and relationship to democracy has been subjected to intensive study is economic development.
The research question for this study is therefore: What influence does economic development on a country have on the maintenance of and sustenance of democracy in that nation?
Background
Guo, G. 1998. “Democracy or Non-democracy from the perspective of economic development." Working Paper. University of Rochester.
This article will greatly aid to answer the question on the relationship between economic development and democracy as it explores various hypothesis between the two variables. In addition, this article explores the relationship between the two variables in interchanged roles. In the first instance, economic development is treated as the independent variable while democracy is treated as the independent variable. Their roles are then interchanged, and democracy is then treated as the independent variable while economic development is treated as the dependent variable. The exploration of these two variables in interchanged roles and positions reveals a lot about their relationship. The source will, therefore, greatly furnish this research study with a lot of information regarding the relationship between economic development and democracy and will make it possible to make viable conclusions. In addition, the article does not just explore democracy and economic development from the surface value but actually goes into every variable. For instance, it explores the factors that denote economic development well as those that denote democracy and the interrelationship between these factors. This information will greatly aid in answering the research question.
Narayan, P. K., Narayan, S., & Smyth, R. 2011. “Does democracy facilitate economic growth or does economic growth facilitate democracy? An empirical study of Sub-Saharan Africa.” Economic Modelling 28: 900-910.
This article avails a lot of information related to the relationship between economic development and democracy. It explores various issues related to the two entities and how these issues play out in a particular nation. The most important aspect of this article is that it explores the relationship between democracy and economic development using sample countries. This sample comprises of 30 countries located in sub-Saharan Africa. The authors collect data on economic development and democracy from these two nations and then analyze this data. In addition, the article uses several hypothesis to find out the relationship between the two entities. One of the hypothesis that is utilized in this study, for instance, is the Lipset hypothesis which stipulates that real GDP increase essentially leads to increased democracy. Using the sample countries, the authors analyze whether there is a direct relationship between economic developments between democracies. Because the study in this article comprises on primary research conducted on actual countries, there is a high likelihood that the information is very accurate. Therefore, this source will avail a lot of relevant information to the study that will show whether there exists a relationship between economic development and demci9acsrsy and the nature of this relationship.
Ahsan, T., Haque, M. R., & Hossain, A. K. 2011. “Democracy and Economic Development-Complementary or Contradictory.” Bangladesh Research Publications Journal 6: 234-239.
This article will provide a lot of relevant information in regard to the research question. This source essentially attempts to establish the relationship between economic development and democracy. It does this from multiple perspectives including the analysis and appraisal of relevant literature. The sources begin by appreciating the fact that in the modern world, there has been an increasing awareness of the fact that there lies an interconnection between economic policy, public policy and governance. From this basis, the authors of the source then attempt to address how the two main entities of economic development and democracy influence each other. Apart from summarizing the literature available on the issue, the authors also explore various theories on the relationship that have been advanced over the years by various theorists. The source, therefore, contains a lot of information that will be of importance in answering the research question at hand. Theories will be derived from this source, and they will be used and in answering the question under study.
Hypothesis
It is always important to formulate a hypothesis as this will act as the main guide to the research. It will ensure that the research adopts a certain direction and does not deviate. Therefore, the particular hypothesis chosen for the purposes of this research is: The more economically developed that a nation is and the higher the rate of economic development of that nation, the higher the likelihood that that nation will be able to sustain democracy in all its social and political factions.
In order to get a clearer picture and indeed in order to come up with viable and accurate conclusion, it is always good to use cases. For the purposes of this essay, two cases will be utilized. The two cases will comprise of a nation that is economically developed, and the other comprise of nation whose economic development is relatively lower.
The two nations selected will be the Canada and Uganda. These are two nations that have very stark differences on the economic scale. The United States is a nation that is very economically advanced while Uganda is a nation that is relatively underdeveloped. These two cases will be very applicable and useful to the research. This is because the research will not only study the economic development of the two nations but will also study the elements of democracy in the two nations. Since the two nations are at different levels in terms of economic development, it will be possible to see how the economic development in these nations has affected the element of democracy.
Data Source: World Bank. 2014. http://data.worldbank.org/country (Nov 28, 2014)
The source to be used to gather information in the two countries is the World Bank database. This source contains information about the economies of nations across the world. The source contains information related to things such as GDP, rate of economic growth and so on. It will, therefore, be possible to get economic data from this source and relate it to the levels of democracy on the two nations. This will help to answer the research questioned.
References
Ahsan, T., Haque, M. R., & Hossain, A. K. 2011. “Democracy and Economic Development-Complementary or Contradictory.” Bangladesh Research Publications Journal 6: 234-239.
Guo, G. 1998. “Democracy or Non-democracy from the perspective of economic development." Working Paper. University of Rochester.
Narayan, P. K., Narayan, S., & Smyth, R. 2011. “Does democracy facilitate economic growth or does economic growth facilitate democracy? An empirical study of Sub-Saharan Africa.” Economic Modelling 28: 900-910.
World Bank. 2014. http://data.worldbank.org/country (Nov 28, 2014)
